Penang

One of my favorite restaurants in the bay area is Banana Leaf, in Milpitas. Its Malaysian cuisine is second to none, and the wait is always busy and the food always good. However, I am not able to get there as often as I like, and this saddens me. I was heartened to learn from blogger Lyndsay that there was an oft-praised Malaysian restaurant in the SGV, called Penang. She sent me the article in LA Weekly about it, and suggested I make the trek out to West Covina.

What caught my eye in the article is that it mentions the quality of the roti canai at Penang. Roti canai is a treat from the gods and should not be missed if possible. Immediately I made it my mission to eat at Penang the next time I got down to southern California. The opportunity came when I decided to treat all of my cousins to dinner for a particular cousin's birthday. Various significant others came along, bringing our party number to 11.

Finding the place was a bit difficult, as it is located in a corner of an ethnic strip mall that is chock full of places to eat. Inside, the decor was a bit tropical, and gave me the weird feeling that I had been there before. Which, of course, I hadn't. We were seated promptly since I had made a reservation, and after a bit of wrangling with my cousins we were finally able to order some drinks. They unanimously decided I would order everything, and left the food decisions to me and my boyfriend.

First I ordered some appetizers: three of the roti canai, the curry puffs, and a beef and chicken satay. The curry puffs came out first and we split the four huge pieces among ourselves. They look plain from the outside, and are stuffed with hearty curried goodness on the inside. It was a good start to our huge meal.


When the roti came out, I warned everyone that they were only good when piping hot, and wouldn't taste as good within a minute of sitting on the plate. They heeded my suggestion and the light, buttery layers were snatched up and dipped into the waiting chicken curry. The combination, as I mentioned before, was heavenly.


Suddenly, the food started coming. I say suddenly, but it took a bit of work on my part to attract the attention of the waiter to order my entree choices as we were eating the appetizers. Not everything came out at the same time, but this was expected and no one seemed to mind. I ended up ordering a couple of Malaysian classics like beef rendang and char kway teow, thrown in with coconut fried rice and sizzling shrimp, and two sambal vegetable dishes.

Everyone laughed as I hurriedly tried to take pictures of everything, but they were much too hungry to really wait. The beef rendang was tender and flavorful, and went well with the rice. I have to recommend the asparagus sambal, but not the samal petai (pictured next to the roti canai above). The green peas in the petai had an uncooked taste to them that my untrained tastebuds weren't prepared to like.




The sizzling shrimp was a hit, but everyone concluded it was a lot of work to get the shrimp out of the shells. One of my cousins decided to save himself the trouble and ate the shell, too. The char kway teow was spicy and reminded me a lot of beef chow fun, while the coconut fried rice was pleasing but uneventful.


At the end we decided to forego dessert because we were too stuffed, but the waiter brought out a small block of jello/pudding like dessert. The flavor was simultaneously salty and sweet, which I didn't really like. However, it did find favor with some of my cousins. Next time I would try one of their desserts off the menu.

It was unanimously decided that Penang was a good place to eat, and that we were all stuffed to the gills. I would return again for the roti alone! It was that good. I must, however, throw in a compliment to Banana Leaf, who still makes the best roti canai I have ever tasted.


Penang
971 South Glendora Avenue
West Covina, CA 91790
(626) 338-6138

Sunday-Thursday: 11:00am-10:00pm
Friday-Saturday: 11:00am-10:30pm

Yazmin Malaysian Restaurant

After having a taste of Malaysian food in Northern California at the restaurant Banana Island, I came home craving pan-fried noodles and roti canai with spicy curry sauce to dip in. The only Malaysian restaurant I could think of in Alhambra is Yazmin, a place I have never been in but was familiar with since its location is in the busy heart of Main Street, next to the Edwards Renaissance. With its courteous staff, affordable prices, and relaxing, spacious ambiance, Yazmin is worth a look.

Upon entering, I noticed the walls were adorned with colorful paper artwork and fans. There are booths parallel to opposite sides of the wall; this creates an illusion of a large environment that made me keep scoping out the diners on the far other side.

The expansive menu includes noodle soup, fried noodles, seafood, and vegetarian; they have lunch special prices (~$4.75) on Monday-Thursday (excluding holidays). Although I went on a Sunday, the prices were still within a reasonable range (~$6.75).

For the appetizer, the roti canai, which is a flaky, thin fried pancake, came in a pair with a bowl of curry dipping sauce. My grubby hands rushed to tear off a piece, but retreated as the roti canai was piping hot and burned! Once it cooled down, I was able to savor the chewy, fried bread. Instead of crispy and light, Yazmin's version of the pancake was more soggy and greasy. However, the curry sauce was good enough, being spicy opposed to creamy.

The main dish I ordered was Char Kuei Teow, which was fried flat rice noodles with bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, egg and leeks. When asked if I wanted to order it spicy or non-spicy, I opted for spicy but once it was delivered, my taste buds did not detect anything so their chili sauce must not be very hot. I ordered mine sans chicken, and overall, this oily stir-fry dish went down the palate easy enough. At many Chinese restaurants such as Sam Woo, this fried flat noodle dish is quite popular but with beef instead of chicken and shrimp.

As for dessert, we ordered a ice blended taro drink with bananas and tapioca and many other things I could not identified called Mo Mo Cha Cha. It was possible the best dish of the meal, and the waiter informed us that it could be served both hot and cold. Try the latter and it makes for a satisfying summer cooler. Here a tip: instead of sharing it like I did, order one for each individual because it will disappear fast!

Throughout the meal, the waitresses and waiters were attentive and brought an extra bowl and napkins for the dessert without us having to ask. This made the meal even better as I felt the staff prided themselves in what Yazmin served.

Despite my limited knowledge of Malaysian food, Yazmin delivers a passing grade in my book, which means it is miles better than say the bland and tasteless Noodle Planet/World. But Yazmin adds to that with their wonderful service, bright and clean atmosphere, and great prices, which makes this lone Malaysian Restaurant stand out on Main Street.

Yazmin Malaysian Restaurant
27 East Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 308-2036

Sun - Thu 11:00AM to 9:30PM
Fri - Sat 11:00AM to 10:00PM